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Ancient Egypt History:
The more than
3000 year long history of Ancient Egypt has been divided into 8 or 9
periods, sometimes called Kingdoms. This modern-day division is somewhat
arbitrarily based on the country's unity and wealth and the power of the
central government. The Ancient Egyptians themselves did not group their
rulers according to such criteria. They rather seem to have developed
the notion of dynasties throughout their history. The Palermo Stone
simply lists the kings one after the other, without any apparent need of
grouping them. The Turin Kinglist, which is more recent, has grouped the
kings according to their descendance or origin. Thus, Amenemhat I and
his descendants, are described as the kings of Itj-Tawi, the capital
whence they ruled. We owe the division into 30 dynasties as we use it
now to Manetho, an Egyptian priest who lived at the beginning of the
Ptolemaic Era. In many cases, however, it is not clear why Manetho has
grouped some kings into one dynasty and other kings into another.
The 18th
Dynasty, for instance, starts with Ahmose, a brother of the last king in
Manetho's 17th Dynasty. Theoritically, Ahmose and Kamose should thus
have been grouped in the same dynasty. Thutmosis I, on the other hand,
does not appear to have been related to his predecessor, Amenhotep I,
but still both kings are grouped in the 18th Dynasty.
Some
Egyptologists have attempted to abandon the notions of Kingdoms and
dynasties, but for the sake of conformity with most publications dealing
with Ancient Egypt, this site will continue using both notions. Visitors
may, however, notice that the timeline below and the timescale used
throughout The Ancient Egypt Site may be somewhat different from some of
the other books or web-sites they have consulted.
Visitors should also be aware that, as is the case with any publication
dealing with Ancient Egypt, dates are approximations and should not be
taken literally. In many cases it is not known just how long a king may
have ruled. Comparing different publications on the hisory and
chronology of Ancient Egypt, visitors may notice that one king may be
credited with a fairly short reign in one publication and a fairly long
in another. This impacts the absolute chronology, that is to say,
Egyptian history using our year numbering.
In The
Ancient Egypt Site, some dates will be proposed but again, they should
only be seen as approximations and not as absolutes. A discussion on the
length of the reign of a king may follow and this discussion may show
the likelihood that this king reigned longer or shorter than the dates
linked to his reign.
It can
thus not be stressed enough that the provided dates are just a frame of
reference helping readers to gain insight in the sequence of events and
occurences and to have an approximate idea of the age of certain
monuments and artifacts.
Placemarks:
We have
grouped my placemarks in order of the generally accepted division of
periods in Ancient Egyptian History.
Pre Dynasty/ Early Dynasty (Dynasty 0+
1+ 2)
Old Kingdom
First Intermediate
Period
Middle Kingdom
Second Intermediate
Period
New Kingdom
Ramessid Period
Ptolemaic Period
The Roman Period
The Byzantine Period
The Abbasid
Period
The Fatimid
Period
The Ayyubid
Period
The Mameluke
Period
The Ottoman
Turk Period
French
Occupation Period
British
Occupation Period
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